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US envoy dies in Benghazi attack
Source: Agencies |
September 13, 2012, Thursday
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The American ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed when a mob of protesters and gunmen overwhelmed the US Consulate in Benghazi, setting fire to it in outrage over a film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as a crowd of hundreds attacked the consulate on Tuesday evening, many of them firing machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. By the end of the assault, much of the building was burned out and trashed.
Libya's deputy UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said several Libyan security officers were killed in the attack and others were wounded.
He said there were "maybe less than 10 victims from the security forces."
Stevens was the first US ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.
A Libyan doctor who treated Stevens said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos during the attack, Stevens was brought alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, doctor Ziad Abu Zeid said.
Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1am yesterday, but "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but no other injuries, he said.
Hours before the Benghazi attack, Egyptians angry over the film protested at the US Embassy in Cairo, climbing its walls and tearing down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag.
Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, apologized to the United States for the attack, which he described as "cowardly."
Speaking to reporters, he offered his condolences on the death of the four Americans and vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain his country's close relations with the US.
The three Americans killed with Stevens were security guards, he said.
The spark for the protests in Libya and Egypt was an obscure movie made in the US by a California filmmaker who calls Islam a "cancer."
Video excerpts posted on YouTube depict Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.
But the assaults underscored the lawlessness that has taken hold in Libya and Egypt after revolutions ousted their secular governments and upended the tightly controlled police state in both countries.
Islamists have emerged as a powerful force and made up the bulk of the protests in both countries.
On Tuesday in Cairo, riot police stood by the embassy's walls but allowed protesters to climb them for several hours.
The consulate in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, is a one-story villa in a large garden located in an upscale neighborhood.
By the end of Tuesday night's attack, much of the building was black and smoldering. Libyans wandered freely around the burned-out building, taking photos of rooms where furniture was covered in soot and overturned.
The violence raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as knowledge of the anti-Islam movie spread.
So far, however, the only sign of unrest yesterday was a protest by dozens of Gazans in Gaza City. Some of the protesters carried swords, axes and black flags, chanting: "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet."
The two-hour movie that sparked the protests, titled "Innocence of Muslims," came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic.
Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer, said he wrote, produced and directed the movie.
Bacile said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction. Bacile, who went into hiding on Tuesday, remained defiant. He said he believes the movie will expose Islam's flaws to the world.
"Islam is a cancer, period," he said, repeatedly.
Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as a crowd of hundreds attacked the consulate on Tuesday evening, many of them firing machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. By the end of the assault, much of the building was burned out and trashed.
Libya's deputy UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said several Libyan security officers were killed in the attack and others were wounded.
He said there were "maybe less than 10 victims from the security forces."
Stevens was the first US ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.
A Libyan doctor who treated Stevens said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos during the attack, Stevens was brought alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, doctor Ziad Abu Zeid said.
Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1am yesterday, but "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but no other injuries, he said.
Hours before the Benghazi attack, Egyptians angry over the film protested at the US Embassy in Cairo, climbing its walls and tearing down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag.
Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, apologized to the United States for the attack, which he described as "cowardly."
Speaking to reporters, he offered his condolences on the death of the four Americans and vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain his country's close relations with the US.
The three Americans killed with Stevens were security guards, he said.
The spark for the protests in Libya and Egypt was an obscure movie made in the US by a California filmmaker who calls Islam a "cancer."
Video excerpts posted on YouTube depict Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.
But the assaults underscored the lawlessness that has taken hold in Libya and Egypt after revolutions ousted their secular governments and upended the tightly controlled police state in both countries.
Islamists have emerged as a powerful force and made up the bulk of the protests in both countries.
On Tuesday in Cairo, riot police stood by the embassy's walls but allowed protesters to climb them for several hours.
The consulate in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, is a one-story villa in a large garden located in an upscale neighborhood.
By the end of Tuesday night's attack, much of the building was black and smoldering. Libyans wandered freely around the burned-out building, taking photos of rooms where furniture was covered in soot and overturned.
The violence raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as knowledge of the anti-Islam movie spread.
So far, however, the only sign of unrest yesterday was a protest by dozens of Gazans in Gaza City. Some of the protesters carried swords, axes and black flags, chanting: "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet."
The two-hour movie that sparked the protests, titled "Innocence of Muslims," came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic.
Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer, said he wrote, produced and directed the movie.
Bacile said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction. Bacile, who went into hiding on Tuesday, remained defiant. He said he believes the movie will expose Islam's flaws to the world.
"Islam is a cancer, period," he said, repeatedly.
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